He was sporting a bandage on his right knee during the match before having discussions with his medical team about the risks of playing back-to-back tournaments in the next few weeks.

Nadal played ten matches in consecutive weeks in Asia after winning the China Open and reaching the final in Shanghai and was boasting a 16-match winning run before Federer doused the fire on Sunday.

‘Best possible condition for London’

“In the knee, we noticed a bit of bruising and we put the bandage on as a precaution,” said Francisco Roig, coach of the 16-time Grand Slam champion.

“We are happy because he returned to the tour winning in Beijing and getting to the final in Shanghai and normally he has not achieved good results in this part of the year.

“Now he has to keep adding points to finish as number one, but above all to think about getting to London in the best possible condition.”

Nadal ran out of steam in Shanghai after a gruelling two weeks (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images AsiaPac)

Federer has triumphed seven times in his hometown event and will close the gap on Nadal to 1460 points with a title in the race to the year-end number one. 2500 points are at stake in Paris and at the World Tour Finals.

The Spaniard has played 75 matches this year after curtailing his 2016 campaign at this very juncture on the schedule last season.

Federer has emerged victorious in all four of their meetings this year and is yet to drop a set in their best-of-three encounters.